Middlesex can surely not be far from the point when they have to resign themselves to not seeing Peter Handscomb in the 2020 season, as the only one of the three county competitions which seems to stand any chance of being played to or near its scheduled extent is the T20 Blast, which is the only one for which Handscomb was not signed. The last few days have featured two of Handscomb’s fellow Australians in Michael Neser and Nathan Lyon joining Cheteshwar Pujara in seeing a county for whom they had signed as a overseas player announcing that their move would not take place.

Even if it is possible to fit in a few first-class matches in what would ordinarily have been the second half of the season, I am unsure whether Handscomb would play for us in these matches, as the situation with international travel might mean that the prospect of flying him in would be harder, seen as an unnecessary expense and seen as an unnecessary risk to worldwide health (which also casts doubt on our signings of Mitch Marsh and Mujeeb Ur Rahman for T20), plus it is doubtful that promotion or prize money would be at stake in these matches.

Thankfully, Handscomb has also signed for the 2021 season, so all is not lost.

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